22 January 2010

flakey tute.

i didn't know if y'all were serious. you could just be flattering a girl, after all. but a few of you asked for some snowflake making classes and considering that:

a. every time i spot a square snowflake, a small part of my soul dies,ANDb. it's friday night, the hubby is not present, and i have been left to my own devices,

i thought a snowflake tutorial might be a wise idea (with the bonus of keeping me out of trouble. and also out of the secret chocolate stash. which generally amounts to the same thing.)

so. Snowflakes 101.

disclaimer: since i didn't know which three people might actually reference this someday, i opted to Play It Safe and structure this as if you have never cut a snowflake before. (and no, the 33 square snowflakes you made in second grade don't count. in fact they're like negative snowflakes. so if all you've ever made are snowsquares, you are LEAGUES behind in snowflake points. grab yourself some scissors and pull up a chair.)

for the rest of y'all who already knew the basics and just wanted a helpful tip or two, this is going to be major overkill, so please get all your insulted feelings over with right now so we can mosey on through the tute.

are we good?

alrighty then.

step 1you need a sheet of paper and a pair of scissors. (with the paper, the thinner the better. this here is standard computer paper, which Generally Does Not Bode Well for dainty flakes.)

fold the paper to make a triangle, like so.

step 2trim the leftover bit. rotate the triangle so the fold is on the bottom.

step 3fold in half. open.

step 4now comes the tricksy part, but i have faith in you. we need to fold this baby in thirds, so eyeball it and loosely fold till it works out right. then strengthen your creases.

step 5flip over. fold in half vertically.

step 6trim the extra triangly bits (cut straight across the line), then cut a meandering curve or angled line across the top (this will form the outline of your snowflake x 12).

step 7aha. the fun part.

alternating sides, cut shapes from the triangle. you must end on the side where you began; DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE.

tip 1: you want mostly space, very little paper left. you can already tell here that i'm going to end up with too much paper.

tip 2: try a mixture of curves and angles to see what suits. follow the lines of the shapes you've already created so that your remaining web of paper is fairly uniform in width.

tip 3: DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE.

step 8open. (i can tell this is going to be too spider-webby for my tastes, which just figures, but since i photographed this much already i'm sticking with the homely guy.)

step 9tada! so ok, a bit webby, but in a pretty way, right? like a perhaps-charlotte-will-be-tempted-to-move-in sort of way? well. so much for being the Resident Expert on Flakes.

anyhow, drop me a note if you make some of your own, but please do not be cruel and purposely link to a snowsquare (i'm talking to you, jeremy. flee from temptation.).